The Hands-on Museum

Paper folding

Foto: Deutsche Nationalbibliothek, Dora Carstensen

Various paper-folding techniques come from Asia, the birthplace of paper. A magical world of paper figures can be created using skill and with an eye for attractive shapes. What is unique about paper folding is that it allows you to create fantastic works of art with just a few simple folds – and there is no need for scissors or glue. Two or three-dimensional structures can be created simply by folding a sheet of paper.

Activity: Participants can try out techniques such as origami, tangrami, fleurogami and zengami. Tangrami is child's play. Squares of paper are folded into triangles and then slotted into each other in different ways. This creates a very diverse range of shapes, animals and flowers. Fans of paper folding can use square or round sheets to create beautiful petals and impressive flower cups using the fleurogami technique. Zengami-Tangle and Zengami-Colour combine different shapes and types of paper to create various designs: printed or self-designed and decorated papers are folded to make fascinating origami figures.